


The Blades of a Huntress

by ayyzahurr



Category: RWBY
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-11
Updated: 2016-02-11
Packaged: 2018-05-19 18:28:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,887
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5976826
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ayyzahurr/pseuds/ayyzahurr
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Beacon Academy receives an influx of new students from the Academies of Mistral, Vacuo and Atlas. The staff all think everyone should get to know each other, and what better way as Huntsman and Huntresses than to beat the living crap out of each other!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. New Challengers Appear

**Author's Note:**

> This work isn't about the relationships between the girls per say, but the stuff that happens around them, while they happen to be in relationships with each other.
> 
> I'm not saying I included vague references, but I definitely included vague references with -some- sort of connection to RT or AH. See if you can find them.

For once, we are not one of the last teams to make it to the arena. Part of it was Weiss' doing. There were some new teams transferring in, and she wanted to 'make nice with them' as Ruby had put it. Miss Glynda Goodwitch stood in the centre, Scroll in her hands checking off something as each team came into the room and made their way into the stands.

Once everyone had settled down, Glynda dimmed the lights, save for the ones that shone down on the arena. Every team was silent, looking around, wondering who would be called first. This was a spectator event as much as it was a taxing and personal one.

Glynda cleared her throat. "I am glad to see that you've all made it here in a timely manner. I certainly wouldn't want any more... latecomers interrupting this valuable time we have here."  Goodwitch was cool, but she was _not_ someone you wanted to piss off. Once she made someone fight without using Dust, four times in a row, against four separate teams no less, with no breaks. Some could handle it, most couldn't. It was brutal to say the least. People learned very quickly.

"As I'm _sure_ you are aware, there are new teams joining us today, and we'll be pairing up some of you to be fighting them. Head to the locker rooms if your name is called." She calls out pairs, with each set moving to either the Red or Blue locker rooms to set up equipment and prepare. It is always three sets called when we first start, and one after every fight, so there is little delay between sessions. "... and Blake Belladonna. First match begins in two minutes. Good luck." Wait, what?

Ruby is huffing. "Aww... I wanted to fight them!" She is clearly pouting. Her girlfriend does little to console her antics.

"I'm just glad that at least one of us gets to fight them so early," said Weiss. "We'll be able to test them; analyse them. It'll be perfect."

"Meanwhile, the girl who is _actually_ fighting them will be heading down now," said Blake. "Yang, could you be my partner?"

"Anything for you, kitty cat," I reply. Every fighter can bring along one teammate to help with preparations. Since Blake and I, and Ruby and Weiss started going out, I've almost always partnered with Blake and Weiss with Ruby.

"Take care," warns Weiss as we make to leave. "You'll only get the two fights to have any idea of what these guys are like. Be careful down there, Blake."

"Kick their ass!" cheers Ruby, fists pumping. That's my sis for you. I'm so proud of her.

 

* * *

 

As we step into the locker room the two other fighters are already gearing up with their partners. We've got a bit of time, but it's always best to be ready. Blake takes out her Gambol Shroud and gives it a cursory glance. She checks the blade and inspects the gun while I go through her Dust cartridges. The other teams talk their partners through their game plan, but there isn't really much to talk about except your standard "be careful out there" schtick. Today was pretty special in that no one had seen how their opponent fought, so there was really no helpful advice to give.

Thank goodness my kitty cat can handle herself.

"You nervous?"

"Yeah," Blake says. "Should I be?"

"I'd probably be nervous, too. Even though I'm not the one out there fighting, I think I'd be a bit worried for you anyway."

Blake giggles. "Real comforting there, Yang. Thank god I made you my partner."

"Do you mean that as in now, in here, or in bed?" My eyebrow waggle game is so high right now.

"I'm feeling the sentiment now more than ever," Blake says as she puts down Gambol Shroud and starts loading up her magazines with the rounds I've checked. Meanwhile, the first match has started. We pause for a while, looking up at the screens that litter the locker rooms, ensuring that everyone has a chance to watch the fight. The two contestants have just entered the arena. The match can only go live when both contestants step into the inner circle of the arena; that way you don't get people running out the gate trying to gun the other down. When the horn sounds, the Red side smirks, and charges Blue with his long sword; meanwhile Blue looks like she's bunkered down, raising her shield, waiting patiently for Red to strike.

"I wonder what kind of weapon my opponent will have," Blake says, mostly to herself.

"Did you get a good look at them?" I ask.

"Not really, no," she admitted. "I was too busy looking at your dumb face." Ooh, nice one, Blakey. "I only realised I was called when Ruby bumped me."

"It makes me happy that all you've got on your mind is this," I say as I gesture wildly to my face. I slow down and lower my hands to the rest of me. "And maybe some of this too." She walked right into that one.

Blake rolls her eyes so much I'm afraid they might pop out. "You are so damn lucky I love you as much as I do."

"I'll be luckier if you decide to show me some of that love tonight." God, I am on _fire_ today.

Blake response is to just smile and not reply at all. She sheathes Gambol Shroud and starts warming up. I join her; it's just something we've always done together. Plus, Blake says that I look too creepy staring at her while she stretches.

Before we know it she is called up. I insist on a chest bump before she leaves, and she obliges. On a more serious note I lean in towards her, softly grasping the back of her neck and gently touch our foreheads together. "Eyes up. Head down," I say.

"And always keep your feet on the ground," she finishes. I let her go, but not before giving her a quick peck on the forehead. She giggles, and she reciprocates, giving me a kiss on the cheek. She gives me a last wave, and walks out the locker room and towards the arena.

Please, please, just stay safe, my kitty cat.


	2. Cold Steel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Blake steps out to meet her opponent, someone no-one at her Academy has fought before. How will she fare?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Stow your mustache wax, ladies and gents; it's about to get hairy.

From the locker room I make my way into the nearby control room. The other fighter's partner is there already, talking to her team through her headset. I wave at her. She nods, bowing her head slightly, and resumes talking with her team. Usually this area is used for commentators when the arena is used for small, local competitions, but during training the system is wired to connect teams together, except for the fighters, for live discussion purposes. The partner always stays here because it's much closer to the arena in case anything happens. The partner is also responsible for setting up and recording any extra footage during the fight for review later. I sit down and put my own headset on, and connect to Team RWBY's Scrolls. I feel so cool with this thing.

"Goldilocks to Cookie Monster, do you read?" I say into the microphone.

"Goldilocks, this is Cookie Monster, I read you loud and clear." Aww yiss, we are amazing.

"Yang, you know we can just use our regular names right?"

"Ice Queen, you know that there is no fun in that, over." An audible groan comes through the headphones. Oh man, she hates that name so much, but it's just too much fun.

"Why do I have to be Ice Queen? You guys are just so -"

"Cookie Monster, initiate protocol Kay-One-Five-Five immediately," I demand through the headset.

"Roger that!"

"What is protocol- Ack, Ruby! Not here! What are you doing!?" screamed Weiss. I couldn't see them, but presumably Weiss is currently being covered in Ruby smooches. Whoops, yup, that's them right there, there they are. Our classmates are cheering them on. Operation K-155 (or KISS) is a success. Ruby was giggling so much when we came up with that one. It's Weiss' own fault for not listening during our lunchtime secret meetings.

I turn off my headset for now, to give them some privacy. The match doesn't start quite yet, anyway. I take the time to check out the person next to me. She has gone silent, leaning in her chair tipped back, staring into the arena with arms crossed, waiting for the match to start. She's put her weapon aside. It looks like it's either a short longsword, or a long short sword, a weird inbetween that doesn't really fit either category. She took it off probably because it's big enough that it wouldn't be comfortable to sit down with it strapped to her. It definitely doesn't have any guns attached, and it doesn't look like it can change into one. There doesn't seem to be any Dust chambers so maybe it's just a sword? These types are somewhat uncommon now, but I mean Jaune has a basic sword too. Not everyone can afford a new weapon.

The lady is... really tall actually. She might actually match my height at the very least. She also looks pretty bulky, like she can really throw a punch. Probably can take one too, what with the armour she's got. Speaking of armour, she's got some MASSIVE gauntlets. Not nearly as stylish as mine obviously, but still...

Interesting.

I snap back to reality when Glynda's voice booms over the speakers. "Blake Belladonna, Red. Azure Tai Feng, Blue." Focusing my mind on the match, I turn my headset back on. Azure Tai Feng, huh? Well, let's see what you can-

"... and there will be _no more_ kissing until after dinner!" Er, not good.

"But Weiss! Protocol-"

"Nope! None for you until you've learned your lesson!" Oh man, what a time to jump back in. Poor Ruby.

"Sorry to interrupt non-sexy time, ladies, but our match is live," I say. "You don't want to miss this, Weiss."

"Hmph, at least _someone_ has their head on today." _Apply directly to the forehead,_ I say to myself. From where I am I can see Weiss giving Ruby the cold shoulder right now.

" _Yaaang_ ," I hear Ruby whine through the headset. "Weiss _hates_ me now."

"Eyes forward Ruby," I say. "Blake's match is up. We can handle your love life later." I'm sorry Ruby, but we know Weiss can't stay mad at you forever, and Blake's about to step into a battlefield. Priorities, you know?

"Phooey."

Blake is on the Red side so from my point of view, she's on the left. Whoever this mystery fighter is, should come up on my right.

When Blake steps into the arena there are cheers from the stands, a lot of them from Beacon's students. You don't usually see this many cheering in a regular match, but when you got Beacon's pride on the line you can bet your ass we're gonna go all out.

"Must be one from Mistral," Weiss says. Curious.

"What makes you say that, Ice Queen?" I ask over the headset.

"It's _Weiss_ , thank you very much," she answers curtly, voice full of annoyance. "Anyway, look at the crowd. Some of the Vacuo and Atlas students are cheering, but almost none from Mistral. Makes sense that this one would be from Mistral."

I take a quick glance and I realise she's right. "Nice catch, Weiss. I wouldn't have thought of that."

"That was pretty impressive, Weiss- _sama,_ " agreed Ruby.

"Oh, shush. I'm still mad at you from before."

An audible whine comes through the headset. Oh, Ruby, you heartbroken, strange, little girl.

Just then, the fighter steps out, to cheers from the Mistral students. She is a bit short, somewhere between Ruby and Blake. She was tanned, slender, had a toned physique and had broad shoulders. She looked like she was putting on a brave face, but even from here I could tell she was nervous as hell.

She had two glove arm guards, and had a shoulder guard on her left side. Limited armour, but armour none-the-less.

Her weapons of choice seemed obvious; two slightly curved short swords hung on either side of her hips.

"Check it; double swords, same as Blake."

"They look like they've got gun attachments too. Guess that's what all the magazines are for," Weiss says.

"But what's that cylinder for?" Ruby asks.

"What cylinder?" Weiss fires back and I agree. What cylinder?

"It's strapped on the back," says Ruby. I use the HUD interface on my control panel and zoom in to the opponent's back. It's not that small, but it is so similar coloured to her clothing, it's practically invisible from here. I stream the image to the team's Scrolls.

"Ruby," I start. "How the FUC-"

"HOW in the world did you see that?" Weiss interrupts.

Ruby just goes: "Eagle vision, bitchesss." From where I'm sitting I can see her making binocular hands on her face. Weiss rolls up a thin book and thwacks her lightly in the head with it. Ruby squeals, but is otherwise unaffected.

"Still," Weiss says. "That was pretty good." She kisses her on the forehead and Ruby again squeals. See, Ruby? Everything worked out.

"Extra Dust magazines?" I venture.

"Seems like an odd container for spares." Weiss muses.

"Another weapon?"

Weiss takes her time answering this one. "Possible, but I don't think so. With a sword in either hand that would only be dead weight, and it looks too big to be a sidearm. It's also too small to be a heavy weapon."

Silence falls on our voice channel. I just can't think of anything.

"... Poster?" I try meekly.

"Unlikely." Weiss shuts me down flatly.

"I think," says Ruby, ending her silence in this conversation. "Those are arrows."

"There's no bow," Weiss says, pointing out the glaring fact that there is in fact, no bow.

"Nope," she says matter of factly. "There are four things you put on your back: bags, capes, girlfriends who fall asleep at the library-"

"Hey!" Weiss smacks Ruby again, but on the shoulder this time.

"- aaaand arrows!" finishes Ruby, undaunted.

"... Well," I reply. "I mean, you're not wrong..."

"It was one time!" says Weiss, exasperated.

"Oh shush, you two looked adorable when she dragged you into our dorm. Let's just assume it's a third weapon of some sort. We might find out soon enough anyway."

Glynda signals the red light above the arena. "Fighters, ready," she calls out. Blake draws Gambol Shroud, leaving her sheath where it is on her back, and lowers her stance. The other girl, however, she's not drawn her weapon, though she has lowered her stance as well. She's... turned her left blade with one hand so the blade edge faces up, and she has her other hand on the hilt, ready to draw. "Right handed," murmurs Ruby.

The whole thing looks... oddly familiar. Looking at Blake, it looks like she recognises the stance, too. Her face flickers with doubt for a split second, but then she refocuses. I'll have to ask her about it later.

The green light flares and the horn rings out. Blake charges her opponent, and the other girl does the same, though she's STILL not drawn her weapon. They close the distance rapidly, thundering towards the other person, and then...

They simultaneously pull a complete stop just beyond striking distance of each other. They are completely still, expressionless. Their grip on their respective weapons have tightened. It is hardly noticeable, but Blake's opponent had just barely unsheathed her weapon, if only a little, just enough to spot the sheen of her blade.

"That's... new," I say. Glancing over to the girl next to me, it's clear to see she's... well, less surprised, and more amused.

"They both had the same strategy," muses Weiss. "Force the other person to action by rushing them, stop at a safe distance and wait for the opponent to over commit, and strike at the opening. You get to test their reactions, their temperament, while at the same time force an opportunity for a counter attack. Basic, but can be effective depending on your reaction speed."

"Blakey was always fond of that move," says Ruby.

"What does that mean for the match?" I ask.

"Both parties were not willing to attack blindly. So they're both cautious," Weiss answers. "They're likely to just poke each other, not really committing to anything until they find an opening."

The two fighters are circling each other now, scanning the other for anything they can use, but otherwise, nothing happens. Step after step after step they take, but neither of them presses the other. It feels like an eternity is passing by, and the tension doesn't do anything to alleviate that.

Then, the other fighter twitches. She draws her sword up from her scabbard blindingly fast and strikes down at Blake's head. Blake isn't fazed, and deflects the blade to her left with her own. She spins counter clockwise, continuing the motion, her blade whirling round to strike the opponents midsection, but the attack is blocked, her opponent's blade there to meet hers, already ready to counter her. Her opponent flicks her own blade down, enough to move Blake's blade out of the way and thrusts, aiming for the neck. Blake simply ducks and slashes at her opponent's legs, narrowly avoided when her opponent half jumps, half hops back and away.

The two continue this newly formed game of swordplay, slowly dancing around the other, but blades twirling with increasing speed and ferocity. However, neither of them can gain any ground. Every move one person makes is met with a perfect answer by the other.

"It doesn't seem like anyone is using their Semblance," Weiss observes.

"They have no reason to," I answer. "Neither of them are pressured enough."

"Finding out the other's Semblance would be huge..." Ruby muses. "The first one to use theirs would gain a quick advantage, but hiding it till the end would give you late-game power."

Blake's opponent manages to get some space and swings her sword over her head, bringing it down on Blake once again, with both hands this time. Blake adjusts and manages to block it, but this time rather than pulling back for another strike, her opponent rushes in, smashing into Blake with the weight of her body, swords clashed between the two, throwing her off-balance. Her opponent continues the advance, looking to press the advantage.

Blake manoeuvres her body, shifting her legs and finding purchase on the smooth floor, stabilising herself. She jumps and pushes her opponent back, creating space. She deploys Gamble Shroud, ready to fire, but no shots ring out. Her opponent had deployed her own weapon, muzzle pointed directly at Blake. 

"There's mirror matches," Ruby muses. "And then there's this." 

I can see that the two of them are gasping, out of breath from their melee. Blake's opponent is also clearly irritated, likely at her attempts to trip Blake that had so far been ineffective. Blake is equal parts agitated and perplexed.

The two stand their ground, facing each other, guns ready. The threat of both attack and retaliation not lost on either of them. But otherwise, they are still.

I take the time to check out Blake's opponent's weapons. Zooming in with the extra cameras, I notice that unlike Blake's weapon, her opponent has two guns that are separate from the blade, one on either side. They look much bigger, like handcannons, though with the larger size her clip capacity must be smaller, and with two on each blade they are likely to kick a lot when fired. Blake could probably fire several times in the time her opponent can reliably let off one.

"Why are they not firing?" Ruby asks.

"No point," Weiss replies. "They both understand that they're in a stalemate. If Blake shoots, she'll just get shot at, too, and vice versa."

Both fighters pause, considering their options. In some sort of silent agreement, they both disengage their guns, and reset. They move slowly toward each other, blade tips barely touching. They both give a short nod, and then are still.

Blake moves first, drawing her sheath with her free hand. She knocks her opponents sword out of the way with her own, and swings at her with Gambol Shroud's cleaver-like sheath. Her opponent quickly draws her second blade and blocks it, but only barely. Blake senses a weakness, and continues her assault. Again and again she strikes, and again and again it is blocked, but the momentum of the match had changed. Unlike before, Blake is the sole aggressor, and her opponent is clearly struggling to keep up. Every now, Blake's opponent's Aura chip away little by little.

"Looks like our friend here can't dual wield as well as Blake," Weiss says.

Blake finds an opening and sweeps her opponent, knocking her off her feet. She seizes the opportunity, pouncing on her opponent mid-air, slamming her into the ground. She follows through, rolling forward off her opponent after the impact. She whips around and pounces once more, attacking again and again and again, taking advantage of her opponent's downed position. Blake's opponent's Aura levels fall rapidly from the assault.

Suddenly, an explosion bursts out in the arena. A cloud of dust obscures the combatants, the source of the detonation. Out of the cloud Blake's opponent comes running. Her weapons have altered; it looks like the swords had converted to a pistol form.

Out of the corner of my eye I spot the lady next to me fall back in her chair and sigh, seeming to relax a bit. Seems like Blake's opponent caused the explosion, probably to get away from her. Looking at my HUD, she'd already lost almost two thirds of her Aura. While the explosion took a small chunk of Blake's Aura, she's practically untouched overall.

Blake runs out of the dust cloud, not quite from the same location, looking bewildered. She quickly locates her opponent and raises her guard. She takes a quick glance at the spectator screens, and the ghost of a smile traces her lips. She must have noticed the giant Aura disparity. She quickly refocuses, unwilling to let the lead get to her head, and she is right to do so. Advantage or not, the match is not over, and anything can happen.

Blake's opponent on the other hand, does not share Blake's cool demeanour. She's a downright nervous wreck, especially having seen how much Aura she'd just lost.

Blake's opponent could not keep her eyes on Blake. She kept shifting her eyes, looking all around her, looking for an out. When she did look at Blake her eyes were a mix of exhaustion, nervousness, maybe even desperation. Her legs were stiff, and her arms were trembling, if only barely.

If Blake was at all affected, she didn't show it.

Suddenly, Blake's opponent turned tail and ran, making a break for the nearest wall. Blake hesitated, taken aback, but quickly snapped out of it and gave chase.

Before Blake's opponent hits the wall, she fires at it with her handcannons, forming a small indentation in it from the blast. She then hammers her pistols together. The hand cannons lock to each other, and a small, thin grip extends about half a foot behind the hilts. The sword blades emerge out either side of the weapon. She digs her foot into the hole in the wall and jumps up, gaining a tremendous amount of height on the wall. With her other foot, she kicks off the wall, flipping over Blake.

"The bow..." I hear Ruby mutter.

While in the air, Blake's opponent takes aim with her bow. She takes the second grip (the bow-string?) in her right hand, pulls back, and fires.

Blake, so focused on her opponent, is caught unawares. She dodges at the last minute, but still takes the brunt of the force of the combined hand cannons, staggering from the impact. Her Aura levels drop by a large chunk, much larger than from the previous explosion.

Her opponent lands lightly on her feet, draws her bow, and fires again. This time, Blake is able to properly react, and jumps out of the way in time. The projectiles harmlessly collide with the wall behind her, though the size of the hole left there is cause for concern.

"That hole's almost as big as my love for Weiss," Ruby says.

"Not now, darling," Weiss replies icily, smiling at Ruby like she's got a death wish. "Yang, can you get a screen on her weapon?"

"On it," I say. The HUD picks up the bow easily enough. I zoom in and send the image on the team channel. There is a brief silence over the call as we quickly analyse the new discovery.

Meanwhile, Blake finds herself on the defensive, as she evades shot after shot after shot. The shots themselves come at a slow rate, but the magnitude of their detonations don't give her time to relax. While they don't come often enough to keep Blake away on their own, they are frequent enough for Blake's opponent to keep running away and maintain distance between them. Blake clearly wants to engage in close combat, where she had the obvious advantage, while her opponent seems focussed on keeping her away with her much larger firearm.

Can a bow be called a firearm? Seems pretty unusual, but it makes sense in this case.

"Here's something," Ruby says. "The bow just uses the guns on the swords. It can be fired using the pistol triggers or by pulling that bowstring-grip back. When the bow is pulled back, the gun barrels extend back as well, retracting when fired. Extending the barrels improve accuracy, and velocity to a lesser extent. On the whole, not a large improvement, but when you combine all four guns together, that can cause some serious damage."

"Look at you, being all knowledgeable and cool," Weiss says. "Impressive."

"I try," is all Ruby replies.

"She IS the only one of us with an actual rifle on our team," I admit. All of us (barring Weiss) had firearms of various sizes and power, but no one knew ballistics like Ruby.

Too bad she ain't got nothin on MY ballistics. They're totally better than Ashley's. Oh, Leon, what a stud you are. Never change.

Blake's opponent fumbles with her bow when it jams, giving Blake a small window of opportunity to rush in. Her opponent panics. She reaches behind her, over her right shoulder, where her cylinder quickly opens, revealing a small set of arrows. She draws one, the arrowhead glimmering with the distinct glow of blue Dust. Blake recognises the danger, but chooses to charge in anyway.

Rather than aim at Blake, Blake's opponent points her bow directly at her own feet and releases. I quickly send another screen to the team's channel.

Both combatants jump away from the resulting detonation at the last second, not quite unscathed. The nature of the Dust arrowhead turned the small explosion into a chilly icicle. Blake's opponent had her left arm and leg coated in ice, but was able to land safely enough. Her Aura had taken a hit, close to elimination but still safe, and she looks somewhat relieved, gaining some space from the persistant Belladonna. She immediately works to shatter the ice. She frees her limbs from their imprisonment quickly enough. Blake was not so lucky. Both her legs had been hit, paralysing her movement. She lands with a painful thud, hitting the ground hard. She too, works to free herself, but without being able to stand and use the full power of her body the process is somewhat slow.

Blake's opponent moves up, using the giant icicle as cover. She quickly clears her bow of the failed Dust rounds. Blake spots her, but is far from getting out of the ice. She uses Gambol Shroud and fires at her opponent, but except for the odd showering of ice shards as they hit the ice structure, she can do nothing. Her opponent draws another arrow, tinged with a burning red this time. Blake is powerless to stop the oncoming attack.

Blake's opponent peeks and releases the arrow, this time assisted with the full ensemble of handcannons, red streams blazing through the air. It hits Blake dead center, the resulting explosion sending her flying through the arena space, slamming her into the opposite wall. The smoke from the blast obscures our view slightly. I bring up two additional screens on my HUD, one for sonar echolocation and one for thermal, so we don't miss anything. 

All eyes turn toward the giant screen above the arena. Blake's Aura had taken a tremendous hit, plummeting immediately to worryingly low levels. The Mistral students were ecstatic. Comebacks were not common, and though Blake had taken a large lead early on, her opponent was proving herself to be quite the fighter as well.

Blake's opponent glances at her bow, drawing my attention to it, and I notice that the slides of the handcannons were locked back, a telltale sign that her magazines had run out. She disengages the bow, reforming the two sword halves. She bounces a little, almost like a little skip, and then charges at Blake.

Blake stirs, her legs freed from the explosion, and staggers to her feet. She can identify her opponent, but seems to be having trouble moving so soon after the blast. She shakes her head, seeming to steady herself, and moves to meet her opponent.

As they both race toward the other in the arena, the crowd is visibly getting more and more excited, and they have good reason to. Both competitors Aura levels are low enough that a single good hit will win or lose them the match. As they thunder towards the other, weapons glinting under the arena lights, the cries of the crowd grow louder and louder and then-

Blake's opponent vanishes.

Blake does a double take, and stops dead in her tracks. The spectators have gone silent. Blake checks all around her, but her opponent is nowhere to be seen. It is almost like she was never there. Weiss starts yelling and cursing incomprehensibly in German, and I can barely make out anything she's saying. Ruby is trying to calm her down, but ends up speaking her broken Japanese.

I quickly check my screens. Her opponent had definitely disappeared on both my visual screen and thermal. Live echolocation was not much help; it is iffy at best. The arena bounces sound around a bit, and can sonar can only be used after professional cleanup.

Blake starts firing randomly across the arena. One or two shots should take the match, but nothing hits, like nothing is actually there. She fires till she runs dry, reloads with a practiced precision, and tries again. Again, nothing hits. If she wasn't worried before, she is definitely worried now. With the last of her Dust rounds depleted, she deploys her sword-form of Gambol Shroud. She looks around, trying to gauge where her opponent could be. The arena is full of bullet holes, and the floor is littered with casings. It's almost like her opponent simply disappeared from reality.

Blake continues to look around, but seems to calm down. She is also less hurried, her movements less urgent. What is that girl thinking!?

Blake twitches, and faces her left, but there is nothing there to greet her. She keeps her guard up, both blades at the ready, and scans the area again.

Suddenly Blake's opponent seemingly warps back into reality right behind Blake, weapons already mid-swing. I instinctively try to yell, to warn Blake, but it happens so quickly my voice just gets caught in my throat. Blake doesn't even have time to turn around. Both blades slice through her back. She collapses to her knees, hitting the ground hard-

Blake disappears.

As her shadow fades away into nothingness, Blake, the _real_ Blake, above her opponent, twirls in the air and strikes at the overly exposed and stunned fighter. The hit connects, and Blake's opponent eats dirt, falling face-first to the arena floor. Blake lands gracefully next to her, untouched. Blake's opponent's Aura drops below the threshold, her portrait gets greyed out, and the horn blares out, signalling the end of the match.

The crowd. Fucking. Erupts. Admittedly, so do we. I yank the headset off my head a split second before high pitched squeals almost break my eardrums. I can spot many, many, _MANY_ people in the crowd in a furor over what just happened. I can see one or two people slumped in their chairs, jaws on the floor, stunned. Some of them are just shaking their friends, screaming. Others... getting a bit more intimate. Oh yes, I see you Ms Nikos, making out over there. I'm pretty fucking ecstatic over here as well. I can't help but do a little dance and pump my fists. I put on my best White-Girl-Dance (because come on, I'm a great dancer). I'm kinda glad I'm in this room and not out there with the team. This would have been so embarrassing if someone saw me and oh fuck I forgot about that chick.

I freeze mid-dance and turn to look at our rival's partner. She's not even looking at me. She's looking into the arena, expression unreadable. Kinda... weird. I turn to see what she was looking at. Her partner must have rolled over at some point, because she was facing the ceiling, but not looking at anything, really. She was still lying down, arms and legs just splayed out, weapons lying somewhat haphazardly around her. Blake sits down, not quite facing her opponent. She doesn't sheath her weapons, instead placing them gently on the ground next to her. She leans back, supporting herself with her arms. She takes in the air around her, resting and relaxing after her hard-won fight. The pose and amount of eye candy is probably illegal. God damn it, Belladonna.

"Thanks." What? I turn to face the other woman.

"What?" I repeat myself, out loud this time.

"Thank you. That was a good fight," the lady says.

"Well, uh... thanks!" I reply. "But, I mean, it's not like _we_ were the ones fighting."

"No, but your partner _is_ on your team. She represents you," she explains. "I hope you'll extend our thanks to her as well."

"I'll let her know," I reply. Weird.

"Thanks," she responds. "My name is Rosinica of Team AZUR. Rosinica Diamant."

"Xiao Long of RWBY. Yang Xiao Long. Just call me Yang."

"Can do, Yang." She looks back into the arena.

"Well, till next time, then," she says, offering me her hand. As she does so, she glances at my gauntlets, but says nothing. Our mutual acknowledgement of the other's armoured fists pleases me somewhat.

"Next time?" I ask, shaking her hand.

"Usually, Azure doesn't have the will to fight. Ever," explains Rosinica, tilting her head towards the arena. "But your friend Blake there pushed Azure. Azure fought like mad, and I've never been prouder."

I take a glance, and I see Blake and Azure not only shaking hands, but being all buddy-buddy with each other.

"Perhaps there will be time for a rematch in the future?" Rosinica asks, innocently.

Despite myself, I can feel my Aura flare a bit. You just met her, lady, _I'm_ the girlfriend here. I suppress the urge quickly.

"Oh, there'll _definitely_  be time to fight," I growl. 

Rosinica doesn't say anything, but gulps and withdraws her hand nervously, and takes her leave.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was as far as I originally wanted to write, but ended up writing more and more. The RWBY characters were supposed to dominate, with my characters only having off-handed comments and such, but they start getting more involved later on. The story still almost exclusively follows Team RWBY, bringing along Teams JNPR and SSSN in their antics as well. I hope you like it so far, come back for more!
> 
> RWBY and its characters belong to Rooster Teeth, and RWBY is the creation of Monty Oum.  
> Everything else is moi.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Blake has won the match, and everyone gets to go home, alive, and definitely not missing any important bits of their body! But what kind of person was she fighting against, anyway? Also a bet is made.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Team Nice Dynamite in full effect.

Soon after, we leave the booth the pick up our partners and return to our respective teams. By this time, the crowd had calmed down, and Ms Glynda had managed to establish some semblance of civility, fixing the arena in the process, though she was hardly ecstatic about it. As Blake and I returned to our seats, we could hear small cheers for her on our side. I could hear some sort of similar disturbance near where I assumed Azure and Rain were sitting. 

"Blake! You were so amazing! I can't believe you managed to pull that off!" Weiss says. Right now, she reminds me of when she first met Pyrrha. 

Ruby just tackles Blake and squeals. 

"It was a tough match," Blake says. "It could honestly have gone either way." Though Blake maintains a blank expression, her face is practically glowing. Ya fat liar. Still love you though.

"She was a tough chick, but my Blakey can take on anything," I say, hand on her shoulder, proud as a girlfriend should be. 

Ruby pauses, a thoughtful look on her face, and gazes up at me, still holding Blake. "Yang, isn't Azure a guy?" Eh?

Before I can answer, Weiss speaks up. "Ruby, Azure's a girl," she says. "I actually agree with Yang, and you  _ know  _ how often we don't." We share a look, and nod in silent agreement. 

"Guys, I fought Azure, and I can  _ definitely _ say he's a guy," Blake says, not quite sure why we don't get it. "If you’d heard how he sounds, and definitely how he smelt after a while, you’d know. I guess I can kinda see how you'd think that, but no. She's a he."

As one, all of us turn to look at Azure and his/her team. My sister and I don't agree with each other, our respective girlfriends don't agree with us, and even Ice Queen and Kitty Cat don't agree! Worse, Weiss agrees with  _ me! _ Poised and perfect agreeing with the awesome inferno that is me? Crazy!

"I think we'll need a meeting with Team JNPR and Team SSSN," Ruby says. "Discuss things, so that we don't, you know... say the wrong thing."

The whole team is silent. Glynda quickly starts the next match during the lull. 

"I guess we're in agreement then."

 

* * *

 

After class, during lunch in the cafeteria (that we  _ definitely  _ did not destroy second term), we had somehow managed to wrangle up both Team JNPR and SSSN, but discussions were somewhat inconclusive. Except for Neptune, all of Team SSSN were of the opinion that Azure was a girl. 

"Guys, I'm telling you," Neptune says. "I know chicks, right? And I'm telling you this Azure guy ain't a chick!" Weiss seems to get annoyed at this. 

"I mean, he's not wrong," says Sun. "He does know chicks." This earns him a glare from Weiss too.

"I'm probably going to have to reevaluate my view on life if she isn't a babe," Sage says. We all turn to look at him. Worried you're gay, Sage? "Uhh, you know, because of reasons and stuff."

"Whichever way you look at it, Azure kinda seems like a dude," Jaune says, breaking the awkwardness. It's almost funny to imagine Jaune could break awkwardness in any fashion. 

Pyrrha nods in agreement. "The way he moves, how he carries himself, could be reason enough to suspect he's male."

Lie Ren speaks up. "His body structure also contributes to this."

On cue, Nora enters the fray, in her trademark sing-song voice. "Don't forget the way he speaaaaaaks~!"

"I mean he can kinda pass as a girl, but it's those little things that tell us otherwise," Jaune finishes. Unlike Team SSSN, Team JNPR unanimously agreed without a second thought that Azure was a guy. Hearing them explain themselves, it's almost like they have experience with crossdressing or gender bending or something. That's alright in itself, but for four random people who happened to come across Remnant and form a team?

Suspicious. 

"Why don't we just ask them, then? Or ask someone on the team?" Scarlet pipes up in his foreign accent. 

Sun whips around. "Then why don't you go fucking do it?" Scarlet panics. 

"Wha'? What do you mean I go do it?" he says. "It's gonna be awkward and weird.  _ I'm  _ not gonna do it!"

You can practically see Sun's blood vessels popping. "See, I'd have _no problem_ with this, except that  _ you're always the one who says we should do it, BUT THEN YOU DON'T DO IT!"  _ Sun is frequently loud, but we find that he tends to yell at Scarlet the most. Nobody ever actually takes it seriously, though. It's actually pretty funny, seeing him rage like that. Scarlet is beside himself in the silent-sometimes-squeaky laughter he has. Sun sighs, but he's smirking. " _ God,  _ I fucking hate you." 

"Alright, alright that's enough," Ruby says. "So far we've got like, seven, for he's a dude, and five for she's a girl. That's a near split down the middle. We've got a field assignment coming up in a week, that'll give us more of a chance to be near them. We'll just observe more then. That cool?" There is some general murmur of agreement. 

"50 Lien says she's a girl," says Scarlet, pretty much ignoring the question. Really? We're going down this route now?

"Fuck that," Sun replies. At least someone on Team SSSN is thinking right. "100 Lien and you're on." Well, never mind. 

Scarlet looks hesitant, internally fighting on whether that much money is worth it. "Deal," he says, sticking out his hand. 

"Thanks for the money, bitch," replies Sun, shaking on it. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's almost like Team JNPR are all based off of gender twisted myths or something but WAHT DO I KNOW.
> 
> RWBY and its characters are owned by Rooster Teeth. RWBY is the creation of Monty Oum.  
> Everything else by me. Definitely.

**Author's Note:**

> As someone who learnt Mandarin as a kid, trying to say "Lie Ren" or "Yang Xiao Long" like how they do it on the show is always a struggle.
> 
> RWBY and its characters belong to Rooster Teeth, and RWBY is the creation of Monty Oum.  
> Everyone else was me.


End file.
